At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the US Navy established six naval shipyards to build, repair, and outfit the fleet. From the "original six"--Boston, Portsmouth, Norfolk, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Washington--the public shipyard system would expand over the next 150 years, peaking at 11 in 1943. Today, only four Naval Shipyards still exist, but as the other sites have been decommissioned over the past five decades, they have been repurposed as industrial parks, residential neighborhoods, container ports, and more. This virtual program will examine the history of these yards' closure, the challenges and successes of their repurposing, and the future of the country's active public shipyards.
New York City, NY; NYC